About Luis Camnitzer

A pioneer of 1960s Conceptualism, Luis Camnitzer uses language as his primary medium, deploying words and text in prints, sculpture, and installation work. In a key body of work produced in the 1970s, Camnitzer paired images and text by placing ordinary objects within wood-framed glass boxes with text printed on brass plaques. His work frequently addresses social injustices in his native Latin America, as in the photo-and-text series “Uruguayan Torture Series” (1983–4), as well as the political landscape in his adopted United States. Other works include adhesive labels printed with absurdist architectural proposals, and a series in which Camnitzer offered his signature for sale, in either hand-written text or print-based media. Of his approach to art as a methodology, rather than a discipline, Camnitzer has said, “Art thinking should have the same overarching role that logical thinking has.” Along with fellow émigré artists Liliana Porter and José Guillermo Castillo, he founded the experimental New York Graphics Workshop.

German-Uruguayan, b. 1937, Lubeck, Germany and Montevideo, Uruguay, based in Great Neck, New York